Asthma inhalers - how long before they helped?

[MumToBe1980]

Hi, my 24 month old has had a cough for about 9 months, after several GP visits we were referred to a Peaditrician who suspects she has asthma (dh asthmatic). She currently has 100mcg clenil modulite twice per day and ventolin 200mcg twice per day. She has received this medication via a spacer for the last month however we have not seen any improvement yet, I'm just wondering how long it takes to start seeing an improvement? She is not too bad in t h e day however during the night she can be awake about 4 or 5 times, and almost throws up. She was initially given antibiotics (prior to the inhalers) and she was cough free for a few weeks however it returned, I'm wondering if this is an avenue to explore. Would appreciate any experiences people have on this subject. Thanks

Hi there!
Usually it can take about 6 weeks to see any change.
It's possible that she may have a post nasal drip which always presents at night. This means that there may be mucus dripping down her nasal passage to the back of her throat causing her to cough.
Is there any dampness in her bedroom? Worth going back to the GP in a couple of weeks and telling him about the exacerbation during the night. Xx

have you tried slightly raising her mattress at the head end ( a pillow under the mattress to avoid suffocation risk)

It is usual to review after 6-8 weeks, but I'd expect some improvement after a month. When do you go back for a follow up?

PP suggestions are good re raising the bed. If you don't give vitamin supplements, I'd add those as asthma can be worse with low vitamin D especially.
Night time asthma symptoms can be helped with adding a drug like montelukast so that may be considered in future. The post nasal drip also a good suggestion, might be worth asking GP about that as a nasal spray can really help.

do you have any pets?
carpet in dc room?
mould (behind furniture on outside wall)?
stuffed toys?

hoover the carpet daily
wash any stuffed toy
wash mould of the wall
rehome the pet(s)

Room is not damp, last house did have some mould present which was hard to keep on top of, however we moved in March this year. Thanks for the post nasal drip suggestion, will certainly look into this further. She does, sleep with head raised on pillow (we currently co-sleep), never thought of introducing multivitamin, but a good idea. No pets, but she does have carpet in room, funnily enough just bought myself a shark hoover so am going to give carpet and mattress a good clean as soon as I receive that. Is it worth buying anti allergy pillows and bedding? She has lots of teddys in that room so will remove most of them and give her 2 favourites a hot wash!

what material is the bedding?
can you wash it?
if yes I would try to wash it regularly, esp the pillow.